CME Says It’s Launching Ethereum Micro Futures as ETH Soars to New Highs

[Tamsialu$$]

CME will make Ethereum micro futures available on December 6. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) today announced that it will offer Ethereum micro futures on December 6. This will allow investors to make much smaller trades than with current Ethereum futures contracts, the marketplace said.

Right now, CME's Ethereum futures contracts—launched in February—allow investors to bet on contacts priced at 50 ETH, or $224,780-worth of the cryptocurrency. But the micro Ethereum contracts will be priced at one-tenth of one ETH: around $449.56 at the time of writing. CME launched Bitcoin micro futures back in May due to the rising price of the asset. The idea, the marketplace said, is that retail investors or institutional investors wanting flexibility can get involved by making smaller investments.

Futures contracts are obligations on traders to buy or sell an asset at a certain price on a given future date. It's a huge market, and the futures 24-hour volume on exchanges is much higher than the spot volume (the buying and selling of a cryptocurrency.) For example, on Binance, the world's biggest exchange, the 24-hour spot trading volume stands at $34 billion. Its derivatives operation, though, stands at $80 billion.more